Running, Essentially . . .

Celebrating 30 Years

This is my 30th year of running. My first goal was to run a marathon when I turned 30 but I ended up running a marathon a few months later at age 26. It was my first long-distance race ever! There were no run clinics back then so I used the 3 month marathon training program published in Runner’s World.

Sunday September 12th is the 30th anniversary of the Terry Fox Run. The Terry Fox Run was the first measured route that I had ever run. Years later I organized Terry Fox run sites at my son’s school and at our neighbourhood YMCA.

Behemoth

Tiny

30 years ago the Sony Walkman which played cassette tapes, first began to appear in North America at high-end electronics stores like Brack Electronics. One of my brothers worked at Brack Electronics and I was the first kid on the block to own one.

I wonder sometimes if I was the first runner in Toronto to run with a Walkman. This thing was huge, about 10 times as thick as an IPod, 5 times as wide and 5 times as long. Imagine the ingenuity required to strap this thing on without the help of special belts and carrying cases. Now I run with a camera and IPod that together are barely 10% that size.